The greatest hazard of Web 2.0 is a failure to be genuine.
Today’s failure to be surprised moment is that WalMart’s back-to-school foray onto Facebook didn’t ’start a conversation’ on dorm decor. It got them slammed for labor practices. Mind you, they’re claiming future roomies are using the site to coordinate, but it just doesn’t look that way on the surface.
WalMart’s past ’social’ experiments have been a bit lackluster in actual result.
The real takeaways on this are first, it’s risky to be Web 2.0 when you have a lot of bad PR to start with. Second, you can’t change the conversation just by trying to participate. Web 2.0 actions need to be compatible with who you are, and recognize who others think you are. Sure, you can use Web 2.0 to ‘move’ who you are to who you want to be, but depending on where you start… it will take a while.
You’re so right about needing to recognize who others think you are. I’m a librarian, and I’ve been listening to endless chatter about Library 2.0, which is supposedly going to change the public’s perceptions of libraries by creeating a “user-centered” revolution. The problem with this idea, of course, is that the public (even, and probably especially, the crowds of teens who come in every day to check Myspace and IM each other) doesn’t think of the library when they think of Web 2.0.
I just found this blog, and have been enjoying it, by the by.